Soooo, my strange comment at the weekend can now be explained.

We’re sitting in Woodbury Salterton in Devon, on Friday 24th, having lunch with friends, we’ve been there for an hour, when we get a call to say that Khaleesi has hurt her leg.

Khaleesi is the Belgian Malinois recue that came all the way from Spain.

Craig had gone out to train Jo-Rosie Haffendon’s dogs, for a week in April last year and fallen in love with her. When Jo’s circumstances changed, Khaleesi needed a new home and within an hour of Craig seeing Jo’s post, Khaleesi was going to be ours.

We joined our gang in September 2023.

Both of her right legs are badly injured. The front leg has virtually no power and she often holds it up when she walks, the back leg has fused at the wrong angle.

You can kinda see the right back leg in this picture, splays out to the right.

So we spend all of Friday afternoon in phone calls back home, trying to decide what’s best.

She isn’t moving…. She won’t move off the bed for food. It’s heartbreaking for those who are with her and equally awful for us being so far away.

We decide that she needs to be seen by a vet and my lovely in laws and sis in law manage to get her to their vet by 6pm on the Friday night.

She’s doped up to the hilt and has a bandage on her back leg.

They believe she has ruptured her tendon in the back leg.

By this time, Craig has already decided that he has to come home. He made me stay, but the logic was, if he went through the hassle, and cost, of coming home, then by some strange twist of fate, we might not lose her.

A dog that can’t put pressure on both legs on the same side is not going to live a great life.

Given that we were an hour and half drive from Bristol, and everyone we knew down there was heading to a wedding on the Saturday, made the travel more difficult.

My lovely friend Helen booked him a bus from Exeter to Bristol Airport, her partner Mike picked him up on Saturday at 7.30am and off he went…

EasyJet charged us a fortune despite the sad story but hey, it was the right thing to do.

We can’t thank our in-laws and Craig’s sister enough, for everything that they did.

Once he was home and he got to see the true extent of her injuries and he started to worry we may lose her.

She could barely move but she was very happy to have him home and fussing over her.

He investigated her leg under the bandage and realised what the tendon rupture meant, the bottom part of her leg just moves all over the place.

The front leg had been the worst and now this one was worserer… I know that’s not a word 🤦🏻‍♀️😂 I’m trying to inject some humour into a stressful situation, it’s what I do…

He slept with her on Saturday night and I travelled home on my own, on the Sunday. I cried when I saw her. She wagged her tail at me but didn’t move.

We cuddled up in the couch in the evening.

I came downstairs on Monday morning and had this awful feeling she wouldn’t have made it through the night.

Of course she had but she was the same the whole of Monday, so lost and sad looking but then, so was Craig.

It was not my story to share as we needed to know what was going to happen before he told Jo-Rosie, her previous owner, and before he told anyone on his business page.

I’ve never seen him so upset.

He slept in the living room with her again last night.

This morning they had another vet appointment at 8.50am.

It was a lovely morning and I spotted them out in the garden so I did a wee impromptu photoshoot, just before work.

The mood was very somber, we were both scared that she might not come home with him. I was sure she would but Craig was convinced this was it.

So the very good news is that Ed the Vet has sent her X-rays to a vet hospital, Broadleys in Stirling and they believe they can fix her injured back leg.

“She will require surgical treatment via tarsal arthrodesis. either partial arthrodesis or pantarsal depending on the level or extent of the injuries”

In layman’s terms there is a chance that they can fix the leg, better than it was when she came to us.

Craig text me straight away to say “she’s coming home, they have options”, what an immense relief.

It’s been a dreadful few days and finally there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

Khaleesi knows something has changed. She is reflecting Craig’s mood, she is brighter and even came to the door to meet me when I came in tonight!!

We’ve had some cuddles on the couch!

So the bad news in all of this is the cost.

She is not covered by insurance as this is a pre-existing condition.

We need to generate somewhere in the region of £6,000…… but we can’t not try.

Craig has started a Go Fund Me page to try to help us raise the money. It’s hard to ask people for help but we can’t lose her when the vet had so much hope.

Here’s the link:

Khaleesi needs help to fund her life saving leg surgery

Here she is stretched out in all her glory… bless her.

She has a green bandage now!

We have been truly humbled by the extent of the donations we have received in the short space of time since he launched it. So many donations from wonderful people who are family and friends and more people that we don’t even know… they maybe know Khaleesi from her previous life.

We might just manage this!

It restores your faith in humanity.

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️